Category: Fall 2012

This is a bit late on the posting… lets say we have all been very busy! We finished up the house on Friday 30th, then all the interns scattered themselves around the world. It has been an incredible journey. It’s crazy to think back to when there was nothing on the site except a load…

Last week we were all back in the classroom to do some learning! Jeff Tobe had come to teach us some basics about solar energy. We discussed what the options were for going off grid and being tied to the grid. As well we covered the basic electrical knowledge needed to size a system for…

The Moab ‘Other half’ half marathon was held last weekend. We signed up to man an aid station to help the runners complete the 13.1 miles. Being Community Rebuilds we decided to dress up, 70’s athletes was our self appointed theme. It was a great morning, with some runners actually stopping to take photos of…

It’s been a hectic few weeks since the last house update, big changes have happened. As well, we have been very busy with extra curricular activities that I will endeavor to update you this week! The exterior plaster coat (scratched to allow the next layer of plaster, lime this time, to key into the first…

Last week we received a fascinating presentation from David Woodman and Roger Borgenicht from Assist Inc, about disabled and elderly access design in housing. We learned about minimum distances for wheelchair maneuverability, how you can retrofit a house to be wheelchair accessible and what the key points of designing for disability are. Did you know…

From September 16 – 22, 2012 in Estes Park, Colorado, straw builders from around the globe gathered for the International Straw Builders Conference. This was exceptionally timed for the fall builders, meaning that we could attend as part of our Community Rebuilds internship. We fundraised like crazy, selling cinnamon buns, hosting a ‘big lebowski’ party…

We spend the majority of last week preparing our bales for their first coat of earthen plaster. The seemingly endless tasks included, adding lathe wherever wood meets bale, putting tar-paper over all timbers that would receive plaster (a Utah code) cleaning up and chinking gaps between bales, adding a plaster stop to the top of…

This week we finally did what we all came here for, we installed the straw bale walls! The process was fairly straight forward… Square up the bales using a mallet, body weight, or a chainsaw Using a chainsaw remove any sections of the bale that need to fit round framing Install bale Compact bales down and…

The last couple of weeks have been all about getting the floor down. This has included two finish concrete pours for the bathrooms and about 700 sq feet of base pour Adobe! After bringing up the floor height with gravel, we installed foam insulation. Frustrating forms to hold the bathroom floors were erected and radiant floor…

Actually it’s straw, not hay. * Never confuse them. We took a field trip to see Frank Fry who grows wheat on his farm. We bought 266 bales of straw from him and loaded them onto the trailer for the 2 hour trip back to Moab. It was really great to meet Frank and his…